Tagging paints a stiff penalty for 17-year-old

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, July 29, 2008

SOUTH COUNTY - When deputies showed up at a 17-year-old Oak Ridge High School student’s door, the last thing he expected was to face felony charges, his mother said.

Scott Badgley and a 16-year-old friend are accused of spray painting graffiti on a building and fence by the Fox Run subdivision’s pool, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Sclider said. With estimated damages around $3,000, the criminal mischief charge was upgraded to a state jail felony. Badgley was charged as an adult, while his friend is considered a juvenile.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Badgley July 17, a month after the alleged incident occurred.

Although Julie Poff, Badgley’s mother, said her son was caught on tape by cameras surrounding the community pool, she was surprised about the severity of the charges. If convicted, a state jail felony is punishable by 180 days to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Badgley said he painted the word “Doce” on the fence.

“It’s our crew name … about 20 guys,” said Badgley, who said the group is not a gang. “We spray paint.”

He and his mother said there was nothing offensive or vulgar spray painted.

“He’s just a normal teenager out having fun, tagging stuff as they do - not to say it was right,” Poff said. “I think there is so much going on in the area that he’s being made an example of. … He painted something and, a couple of days later, someone else painted over it.”

The family recently moved to the Fox Run neighborhood, and the incident is not the impression she wanted to give the community.

“Scott did it late at night, because we didn’t know he had snuck out of the house,” Poff said.

The Fox Run Property Owners Association pressed the charges, she said.

She is hopeful Badgley’s charge is dropped to a misdemeanor because the paint was removed from the fence and building by a power washer, and it just needs a bit of paint.

“It was … all up and down the main boulevard on Fox Run, Poff said. “My son volunteered to clean it off, and they told him no.”

Charges regarding graffiti are based on repair estimates collected by law enforcement, Sclider said. Deputies call several companies to determine how much it will cost to make a spray painted area look as it did before.

“It’s not just the power washing; you have to be able to match the paint,” Sclider said. “We had a house in The Woodlands with a painted driveway that was egged, and it was the same type of incident. We had to go ask for a couple estimates for power-washing and painting.”

The repair estimates determine the charges a person can face, he said. Graffiti is criminal mischief, a Class C misdemeanor if the damage is less than $50, according to the Texas Penal Code. If the damage is at least $50 but less than $500, the charge is a Class B misdemeanor. And, if the damage is at least $500 but less than $1,500, it is a Class A misdemeanor.

A state jail felony charge means the estimated damage is at least $1,500 but less than $20,000.

While Sclider doesn’t believe graffiti is any more of a problem now than in recent years, he said the Sheriff’s Office takes property damage seriously.

Whether Badgley has learned anything from this is still up in the air, his mother said.

“As of this point, I don’t think he’s learned anything from it,” Poff said. “I don’t think it’s done anything for him. We’re not doing any more spray painting. … I wish it would have woke him up spending three days in jail, but it hasn’t. I hope it wakes him.”